COMPREHENSIVE CAREER BUILDER CERTIFICATE IN TECHNICAL WRITING-Techwriter-Certification.com

Comprehensive Career Builder Certificate in Technical Writing (150 Hours)

This is a Career Builder Certificate Course of Study for students serious about advancing their career in the field of Technical Communication. Some of the highlights of this course are as follows:

Be prepared to invest 6-8 hours a week in your studies for 3 months.
Course of study can be accelerated with instructor permission.
Customized comprehensive content developed to engage you with one single instructor from start to finish.
Three Courses blended into one succinct body of knowledge.
Independent and self-paced study.
Instructor guidance and feedback.
Books purchased online by the student through Amazon.
Accredited University Certificate upon successful completion (issuance fees apply).

This certificate program consists of the following three courses:

Technical Communication: The Profession, Writing Style, and Format
Technical Reports for Industry, Government, and Business
User Documentation for Technology Products

The first course in this sequence is designed to prepare you for the remainder of the program.

Overall, just to name a few items, students will study style and format for industry, government, and business documents. They will review strategies for finding information for writing projects and learn methods for documenting those sources. Study and practice task orientation which is critical to good user-oriented documents and review writing styles common in user documentation is the main focus of this unit.

The synopsis for each of the three course modules can be found below.

Technical Communication: The Profession, Writing Style, and Format

In this course we begin with a thorough refresher bootcamp in grammar, usage, and punctuation and then study style and format for industry, government, and business documents (such as headings, vertical lists, warning notices, highlighting, tables, graphics), technical terminology, and wordiness problems. During this course you will correct documents containing the kinds of problems you are studying and read and take quizzes on The Insider's Guide to Technical Writing. To conclude this course, students do a major overhaul on a technical report and on a user guide.

Technical Reports for Industry, Government, and Business

In this course, the student begins by learning strategies for finding information sources for writing projects and methods for documenting those sources. From here, you will continue by practicing using character and paragraph styles to increase efficiency and consistency, reviewing how to create traditional outlines and tables of contents, and using templates for format reports. There will be readings along the way and quizzes on the Chicago Manual of Style. Following this fundamental preparation, students practice writing brief technical documents on science or technology topics. To conclude this course, you will apply all that you have learned by writing a formal technical report on a new technology, environmental issue, or scientific discovery.

User Documentation for Technology Products

Students begin this course by studying task orientation which is a critical component to writing good user-oriented documents. You will learn about writing style common in user documentation (especially the passive voice). The course continues with the students practice of writing two sets of instructions (the second of which you create and apply a template with customized character and paragraph styles). You will follow this project by creating a properly formatted standard operating procedure (SOP). As in the other courses you will read and take quizzes on Read Me First! A Style Guide for the Computer Industry, by Sun Technical Publications. The course of study concludes by teaching you how to study and analyze the design of user guides, and thus create a practical user guide of your own authorship.

Please note that this comprehensive course of study may be completed earlier than indicated dependent on arrangement between the instructor and student.

Textbooks and Accredited University Certificate are not included. Certificates are only issued upon successful course completion of all required work. For more information contact courseinfo@jeronline.com

Outcome

By the end of Course 1 - Technical Communication: The Profession, Writing Style, and Format, you will be able to:

Recognize problems with and format text with headings, vertical lists, and notices (using the free online textbook).
Add graphics to documents and format them properly.
Apply and develop a highlighting scheme that controls italics, bold, etc.
Create properly formatted tables and charts.
Know how to look up issues involving technical terminology (using Microsoft Manual of Style).
Recognize and correct sentence style problems (passive voice, wordiness, etc.).
Write useful introductions for whole documents and for individual sections within documents.
Create helpful cross-references.
Recognize and correct common problems in grammar, usage, and punctuation.
Correct technical business documents containing problems you have studied in this course.
Optionally, write a set of instructions or a recommendation report (or both).
Read and take the quizzes on Insider's Guide to Technical Writing.

By the end of Course 2 - Technical Reports for Industry, Government, and Business, you will be able to:

Conduct effective research for technical reports.
Properly document the sources of information you borrowed to write reports.
Use and create character and paragraph styles to increase consistency and efficiency.
Write concise, well-organized descriptions, processes, extended definitions, and causal analyses.
Conduct field research and write a brief field-investigative report.
Write helpful, useful introductions for whole reports or sections of reports.
Write concise, properly detailed abstracts and executive summaries.
Create logical, detailed outlines and well-formatted automated tables of contents.
Know your way around the Chicago Manual of Style.
Write a well-researched, detailed, concise formal technical report on a new technology, environmental issue, or scientific discovery or conduct laboratory research and write a standard primary-research report.
Create an online portfolio, and add items you've created in this course.

By the end of Course 3 - User Documentation for Technology Products, you will be able to:

Conduct an effective task-orientation analysis, and develop a user document accordingly.
Recognize and correct wordy, ambiguous passive-voice constructions.
Write two sets of instructions, the second of which uses character and paragraph styles.
Format reference information such as commands, subroutines, APIs.
Format the text of a standard operating procedure (or write one of your own).
Understand the common components of a user guide, and format the text and graphics of one.
Write your own user guide on a technology product.
Learn about the technical-documentation industry in Read Me First! (Sun Microsystems) and successfully take the quizzes.
Create an online portfolio, and add items you've created in this course.

Assessment

The Comprehensive Career Builder Certificate in Technical Writing requires that the student engage in independent and self-paced study. The instructional developer of this program has been careful to provide a detailed method of study. Self-directed quizzes and short answer probe questions are created to give students a good sense of if they are on track with their learning objectives. These tasks are for student evaluation only.

In order to earn the official Comprehensive Career Builder Certificate in Technical Writing the student will be required to submit samples of completed work that will then be evaluated for accuracy and representative knowledge of the subject matter. More details regarding the process leading to the Comprehensive Career Builder Certificate in Technical Writing are described in detail in the course curriculum.

Required Book(s)

Included, a free online textbook by the Instructor of this Course.

Outline

Course 1 - Technical Communication: The Profession, Writing Style, and Format

Week 1: Grammar, Usage, Punctuation Review, Introduction to Technical Writing.
Week 2: Technical Writing Process, Headings, Lists.
Week 3: Doc Plans, Outlines, Toolbox; Highlighting, Notices.
Week 4: Research, Rough-Drafting; Terminology, Style for Numbers, Symbols, Abbreviations.
Week 5: Task Orientation, Visuals; Introductions, Cross-Referencing.
Week 6: Editing, Indexing; Writing Style.
Week 7: Final Production; Grand Review of Grammar, Usage, Punctuation.
Week 8: Final Projects: Comprehensive Document Overhaul.

Course 2 - Technical Reports for Industry, Government, and Business

Week 1: Research and Documentation.
Week 2: Description, Process, Illustration, Abbreviations.
Week 3: Cause Analysis, Extended Definition, Numbers.
Week 4: Brief Field-Investigative Report, Tables.
Week 5: Introductions, Abstracts, Executive Summaries, Parts of a Published Work.
Week 6: Outlines, Tables of Contents, Grammar, Usage, Punctuation.
Week 7: Report Components and Templates, Spelling, Distinctive Treatment of Words.
Week 8: Final Project: New Technology, Environmental Issue, or Scientific Discovery.

Course 3 - User Documentation for Technology Products

Week 1: Task Orientation, Writing Mechanics, Constructing Text.
Week 2: Passive Voice and Other Writing Style Issues, Illustrations.
Week 3: Brief Instructions 1, Document Types.
Week 4: Formatting Reference Information, Document Types.
Week 5: Brief Instructions 2, Character and Paragraph Styles, GUIs.
Week 6: Standard Operating Procedures (Formatting), International and Legal Issues.
Week 7: Components of Standard User Guides.
Week 8: Final Project: User Guide for a Technology Product.

FAQ

This Certificate Course must be completed within the specified time period noted at the time of enrollment. Extension fees are applicable beyond the end date as follows: 1 month, $149.00; 2 months, $179.00; 3 months, $199.00. Upon successful completion of this course you may apply for a paper-based certificate from one of our Accredited University Partners. University certificate processing fees apply.

Upon successful completion of this course you may apply for a paper-based certificate from one of our Accredited University Partners. University certificate processing fees apply.

At the time of successful course completion, Technical Writing Certificate Badges are generated for student use. They recognize and verify that specialized learning has taken place in the subject area enrolled in. Our Official Digital Badges can be used to display a skill set and achievements on social networking profiles such as LinkedIn, etc. as well as on various job sites and much more.

For details about this FAQ use our Contact Form to request more information.

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